Bush Offers Iowa Victims’ Kin Condolences at Service

President Bush, choking on his words, offered condolences today to the families and friends of 47 sailors who died in the explosion aboard the battleship Iowa.

“We cannot--as long as we live--know why God has called them home,” he said to 6,000 mourners, among them most of the ship’s crew.

“May God bless them all,” he added, choking up and dropping the last portion of his prepared text.

Bush, a Navy fighter pilot whose two crew mates died when his plane was shot down by the Japanese in Pacific combat in 1944, vowed to uncover the causes of last Wednesday’s blast that killed men trapped inside the turret of one of the 58,000-ton ship’s massive 16-inch guns.

Survivors’ Pain

But he acknowledged that the answers will do little to ease the survivors’ pain.

The President and his wife, Barbara, sat alongside the families of the dead men during the 45-minute service in a hangar at the Norfolk Naval Air Station.

A bouquet of red roses was placed in front of the podium. Behind were an American flag and the battleship’s banners. Outside, 2,000 listened to the service on loudspeakers.

Afterward, he and his wife shook hands with the families and Bush embraced a tearful widow. Mrs. Bush held the hand of a young woman holding a baby and hugged several others.

Later, on Air Force One traveling to Chicago, Bush told reporters:

“I did choke up at the end but I did feel a kind of inner peace about the thing. I felt I had to do it. This one was tough.”

But he said he still believed that the World War II vintage battleships served a purpose for national security.

“They’re a useful platform for our missiles. There’s a hell of a lot of firepower there. . . . I don’t think the guns are obsolete. The firepower is enormous. The accuracy is supposed to be pretty good.”

Bush was accompanied on the trip to Norfolk by Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and Veterans Affairs Secretary Edward J. Derwinksi.

“To all who mourn a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a friend--I can only offer you the gratitude of a nation, for your loved one served his country with distinction and honor,” Bush said.

A regular churchgoer, the President counseled “faith and prayer” as the road to comfort.

“Your men are under a different command now, one that knows no rank, only love; knows no danger, only peace,” he said.